


Of Wallets and Wrappers

by zinke



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-10-24
Updated: 2007-10-24
Packaged: 2018-09-17 06:42:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9309920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zinke/pseuds/zinke
Summary: A little drabble born from my amazement at the size of Josh’s wallet (get your demented fangirl minds out of the gutter – you know who you are!).





	

**Author's Note:**

> This little piece of fluff is set towards the end of the episode The Crackpots and These Women, and was written for ww_renaissance, where we’re watching the series as Aaron (might have) intended it to be seen: from the beginning, in order and without the summer hiatuses. Many thanks to caz963 who, in spite of her flaming throat and runny nose, agreed to provide some impromptu speed-beta. *hands tissue*

“Donna! C’mere!”

Fighting the urge to roll her eyes, Donna saved the document she’d been transcribing before rising from her desk with a sigh. “Josh,” she began before she’d even made it to his office doorway, “what’d I tell you about the yelling?”

He didn’t even look up at the sound of her voice, his attention wholly focused on his task as he first pulled an unopened package of post-it notes and next a handful of pens from an open drawer and tossed them onto his already cluttered desk. “Where’s my letter opener?”

“You can’t be serious.”

“Donna—”

“Josh, I was doing actual work out there,” she complained even as she moved around his desk and nudged him out of the way. Reaching down she brusquely closed the drawer he’d been rifling through and pulled open the one below it. “You can hardly expect me to have that memo finished by six if you keep calling me in here for stupid things like this.” Lifting up a stack of steno pads, she pulled the elusive opener from the drawer and handed it to him. “Why do you need it, anyway?”

She watched as Josh retrieved a CD from the mess on his desk and waggled it in the air at her. “I couldn’t get this open.” Shifting his grip on the CD, Josh tried to work the blade through the wrapping but missed his mark, nearly slicing into his arm in the process. “Damn!”

“Here, let me,” Donna said, studying his stormy countenance as she gently plucked both the CD and the letter opener from his fingers, then deftly slid the steel through the cellophane. “I didn’t know you liked Schubert.” He hummed non-committally in response and shrugged. The noise of crinkling cellophane as Donna pulled the case free sounded loud in the late afternoon stillness of the office. “Here you go.”

“Thanks,” he said softly, taking it from her outstretched hand and dropping his eyes to study the cover. Donna watched, a crease of worry pulling at her brow, as Josh smoothed a finger over the case with something akin to reverence. 

Nodding slowly she turned to leave, but paused when something sitting on the corner of his desk caught her eye. “Good grief, Josh. How can you sit down with that thing in your back pocket?” 

“My wallet?”

“It’s worse than your desk,” she exclaimed incredulously as she turned the ratty, overstuffed leather billfold over in her hands, fingering the tattered edge of a protruding receipt. “What do you have in here anyway?” 

Before she could open it, Josh had leaned over and snatched it roughly from her hands. “A hell of a lot less than you haul around in that handbag of yours,” he muttered, opening the wallet himself and pushing the errant sales slip deeper into the pocket. 

Donna leaned against the corner of his desk and smirked. “I’m a woman, Josh. I need things.” When the expected snappy comeback didn’t materialize, her gaze shifted to study him in the dim lamplight, his face a careful mask that immediately set her on edge. “Josh? Is everything okay?”

His eyes darted up self-consciously to meet hers for a brief moment before dropping to study the carpet. “Yeah. Listen, don’t worry about finishing that memo tonight; no one over in Legislative Affairs is going to bother to read it before tomorrow anyway.”

“That’s not exactly helping to convince me, you know. Are you sure you’re all right?” 

Josh huffed out a short laugh and favored her with an appreciative smile. “I’m sure. Now get out of here and go get some chili. I’ll be up in a few minutes.”

“You’d better; otherwise I’m sending CJ in here after you.”

“Yeah, okay,” he muttered distractedly as he popped open the small CD player he kept in his office. Shrugging off her concern, Donna carefully shut the door behind her as she returned to her desk to tidy up the assortment of notes and files she’d been using earlier. 

Once she was satisfied that everything was more or less in order she reached over to click off her desk lamp, noticing as she did a solitary spill of welcoming light coming from an open office doorway. It took a single glance at the firmly shut door to Josh’s office to make her decision, and only a few purposeful steps to bring her past Carol’s desk and through the inner office’s doorway.

“Hey CJ, I thought you’d already gone upstairs.”

“Forgot these. So, what can I do ya for?”

 

*fin.*


End file.
